The event, which is in its fourth year, draws crowds from around the state and the nation, all for a good cause.

"Of course all of the proceeds go to benefit the Friends of Children's Hospital (at Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children)," said Miss Mississippi Chelsea Rick, who is participating in the Zippity Doo Dah Parade and other weekend events.

Browne said in the past three years, organizers have given more than $260,000 to the Children's Hospital.

"We are very proud of that," Browne said.

This year's theme for the weekend is "Welcome Home, Vietnam Veterans."

"Gov. Phil Bryant proclaimed Saturday as the official Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day in the state of Mississippi," Browne said.

Saturday's parade will honor thousands of vets who were never recognized for their service overseas. Jim Wiley, a veteran who served in Vietnam in 1968, brought the idea to Zippity Doo Dah organizers.

"I was in the 44th Medical Brigade (in Vietnam) and landed right in the middle of (the) Tet (Offensive), which was really the most violent part of the Vietnam War," said veteran Jim Wiley.

Wiley said coming home was far from the experience he imagined it would be.

"In Vietnam, we dreamed of the day we would come home and the idea of getting out of a war zone, where everybody seemed to hate us, and coming home to the warm embrace of our country. It was turned upside down," Wiley said.

But this weekend, that's all going to change.

"As far as we know, this is the first statewide effort done anywhere in this country to welcome home these heroes," Browne said.

"For the governor to come out and give a legal proclamation about us, we thought it was wonderful," Wiley said. "It was acknowledging that all of Mississippi stood behind this welcome home celebration for us, and it means a lot."